A second gas storage tank close to Cuba’s supertanker port in Matanzas exploded on Saturday morning following a blaze which burned by way of the evening after lightning hit one other tank on Friday night.
Cuban state-run tv mentioned a minimum of 67 folks have been injured within the second blast and 17 firefighters have been unaccounted for. Civilians had already been evacuated from the realm.
Well being minister José Angel Portal Miranda mentioned in a Twitter put up that of these injured, three have been in important situation, three very grave and one other 12 have been in a “grave” situation.
Seven sufferers have been transferred to hospitals within the capital, Havana.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited the scene 80 miles east of Havana round midnight and returned in the course of the morning as state-run tv broadcast reside protection of the unfolding catastrophe.
Diaz-Canel posted on Twitter earlier than the second blast that first responders have been “attempting to avert the unfold of the flames and any spill of gas” into the Matanzas bay.
A later tweet from his workplace mentioned Cuba was asking pleasant nations for recommendation to place the fireplace out.
By Saturday morning the fireplace appeared fully uncontrolled, threatening different close by gas storage tanks as smoke reached Havana.
A paramedic on the scene, who requested to not be recognized, mentioned by phone that chilly water was being poured on close by tanks.
Cuba is affected by every day blackouts and gas shortages and the lack of gas and storage capability is prone to irritate the state of affairs.
Jorge Pinon, director of the College of Texas at Austin’s Latin America and Caribbean Power and Atmosphere Program, mentioned the realm had eight large tanks every with a capability of 300,000 barrels.
Commercial · Scroll to proceed
“The world is a transshipment level for gas to varied thermo-electric vegetation, not simply the one close by, so this could possibly be very dangerous information for the facility grid,” he mentioned.